Month: April 2011

Escalade

No – not a giant SUV with chrome spinnners on the oversized wheels – that’s an /ɛs kəˈleɪd/ – I mean /es.ka.lad/ – rock climbing.

Jonah has been doing rock climbing as his Wednesday activity this year (since kids don’t have school on Wednesday – for more on that see here)

Last week was his first time climbing outside – on real rock, instead of the climbing wall in our village centre sportif.

His teacher is a pretty funny guy – we were given the following map to get to the climbing site.

Note the “princess in distress” calling out for help from the top of one of the turrets of the chateau (the chateau is actually there) and the warning “Chevaux” with a little exclamation point – basically “here be horses” I think.

No – not a giant SUV with chrome spinners on the oversized wheels – that’s an /ɛs kəˈleɪd/ – I mean /es.ka.lad/ – rock climbing.

Jonah has been doing rock climbing as his Wednesday activity this year (since kids don’t have school on Wednesday – for more on that see here)

Last week was his first time climbing outside – on real rock, instead of the climbing wall in our village centre sportif.

His teacher is a pretty funny guy – we were given the following map to get to the climbing site.

Note the “princess in distress” calling out for help from the top of one of the turrets of the chateau (the chateau is actually there) and the warning “Chevaux” with a little exclamation point – basically “here be horses” I think.

In school this week Micah’s class had some special guests – some petits chèvres…baby goats.

Last week his class made goat cheese (also confusingly referred to as “chèvre”) at school. We asked him how exactly they did this – but the response seemed a bit suspicious (hint: it included cinnamon). I don’t know how exactly one does this – as I don’t seem to recall cheese-making being part of my curriculum when I was growing up in Saskatchewan.

This week someone brought in 3 baby goats. Micah said they played with them, and fed them grass, and pet them, and fed them milk from a bottle because they ‘were REALLY REALLY thirsty.“

In school this week Micah’s class had some special guests – some petits chèvres…baby goats.

Last week his class made goat cheese (also confusingly referred to as “chèvre”) at school. We asked him how exactly they did this – but the response seemed a bit suspicious (hint: it included cinnamon). I don’t know how exactly one does this – as I don’t seem to recall cheese-making being part of my curriculum when I was growing up in Saskatchewan.

This week someone brought in 3 baby goats. Micah said they played with them, and fed them grass, and pet them, and fed them milk from a bottle because they ‘were REALLY REALLY thirsty.”

translated… basically civic training – a course to help you understand life in France: how does the democracy work, why is the flag red, white & blue, what about separation of church and state, how does the medical system work etc. etc.

It is a course for people trying to immigrate permanently to France, or get into the social system for help finding work, or trying to get citizenship – or apparently if you’re the wife of a PhD student from Canada here temporarily.

It did allow the kids and I to spend a day downtown, doing what we do best: ride the tram, visit museums, eat … lather, rinse, repeat.

Matea has been pretty excited for a Marc Chagal exhibition that is now at the art museum, so we went there. Plus there is a new temporary exhibit at another museum on pre-historic cave drawings from the Alpes. (honestly – where do these kids get their nerdly aptitude from? Certainly not from their father who will still be in school when he’s 40)

We did get to meet up with Susan for lunch in a park downtown – so that was nice.

As to the question “why in the world is Susan in this course” not one single person can anser that. We just keep getting official looking documents from various branches of administration of the Republic notifying her that she needs to be there, and if not her Carte de Sejour will not be renewed (as ours will expire already in December…see here for more on that)